Better organised, better results - Paul Smith's verdict on league form

Oct 26 2010

Paul Smith

As the team enjoys a brief break in their league schedule, Jets Head coach Paul Smith reflects on the first month of the season.

First four games of the season we go 1-3 and bow out of the BBL Trophy competition.  Second four games of the season, all in the league and, suddenly, we are 4-0 and top of the table.  How can we account for, what is on the face of it, such a major turnaround?

Well, defensively , there is no doubt that we are much better organised and focused than we were early on. Also, individually, we are much fitter and healthier and key players like Matt Schneck and Quemont Greer have now adjusted to the style of play they encounter in this league, and importantly also the refereeing.

Finally, and this is perhaps the biggest and the most important difference - as a team, we have started to rebound something near our potential. As I said in an earlier Coach’s Corner, rebounding wins matches – and the last four games has shown how true this is!

Last week I also said that it was the defence that was providing us with the Ws as the offence simply wasn't firing consistently and I regret to say that this still applied in the Riders game last weekend. Once again, offensively we are getting good looks but we did not shoot well at all. We were 1 from 15 from 3 point range and missed 13 foul shots.

It may surprise people to hear that I'm not that worried though. We have quality players who will discover their shooting touch soon enough and we are playing very good defence. The team, to a man are taking pride in stopping their opponents and seem very hungry to keep improving.

Students of statistics might have noticed that Calvin Davis made the top scorer’s list for the game against the Riders despite the limited court time he had. This seems to suggest that he is over his early season twinges and getting back toward his best.

If we look at the detailed figures for the game, production per minute says he is just about our most efficient player. We don’t want to rush things and risk him going backwards so we are bringing him back carefully.

By December we hope he will be playing major minutes, back to full fitness and performing again as one of the top players in this league.